You’ve spent years of your life serving your country, and now it’s time to transition back into civilian life. Transitioning from the military to the civilian world comes with its challenges, but there are steps you can take to limit your struggles and make the transition more seamless. Below, we provide you with a list of things you should do before and during your transition to assist you with the process.

Why It’s Important to Prepare for Your Transition

If you go into your transition out of the military ill-prepared, you’ll be making an already stressful situation even more difficult. Transitioning out of the military can bring a lot of instability, especially if you’re not adequately prepared, so it’s important to take the steps to prevent additional and unnecessary hardship. Some of the hardest parts of transitioning from the military to the civilian world include:

●Structure and routine change

●Financial uncertainty

●Loss of community

●Identity shift

●Career transition

●Social isolation

Preparing for your transition can help ease some of these hardships. While you can’t prepare for every circumstance you may encounter, you can make it easier to adapt and overcome the challenges you face during your transition.

8 Things to Do Before and During Your Transition

Transitioning out of the military has plenty of challenges, but you can ease the stress of leaving the military by preparing in advance and putting in the work. Below are some things you can do before and during your transition to ease the process.

1. Anticipate a Gap

While it’s not something that always happens, you may have a gap between your military life and getting started in the civilian world. As a result, you may experience financial difficulties due to a delay in paychecks, unexpected expenses, and a costly job search.

Before you even start your transition, you should start saving in anticipation of this gap. Ideally, you’ll want to save enough money to account for at least a six to twelve-month gap. You should have these funds separate from your emergency savings, providing you with some room to find work and stabilize your finances in the civilian world while you deal with the other difficulties you may face as part of your transition.

If you save more than you need or are able to find work quickly after you get out of the military, you can use the extra funding to add to your emergency savings, pay off debt, or assist with your other financial goals or needs. Ideally, you would land a job quickly after the military and wouldn’t need to use everything you’ve saved, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

2. Look at and Pay Off Your Debts

As you start to prepare for your transition, you might notice that it can be challenging to determine whether or not your civilian career will pay you more or less than what you’re currently making in the military. It will be easier to transition into the civilian world if you make an effort to have as little debt as possible, which means you need to start accounting for your debts and paying them off while you’re still in the military.

You can start by making a list of all your debts, including information about the creditor, how much you owe, and the interest rate if you have one. Once you have your list, make a game plan on how you plan to repay these debts. You can start with the biggest debt with the highest interest rate or start with some of the smaller debts to eliminate them entirely. If you need help with financial planning, you can find financial professionals at your installation who can offer you free assistance.

3. Try and Line Up a Job

You don’t want to wait until you’re out of the military to start your job search, which means you need to start sprucing up your resume and finding civilian career opportunities that align with your skills. If you need help building your resume and finding career opportunities, you can go to your installation’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP) office for assistance.

Another thing you want to consider when looking for a civilian career is how you’re going to compare salaries. In the military, your basic allowance for housing (BAH) is adjusted based on the cost of living in a specific area, while civilian companies don’t generally adjust their salaries for the cost of living. You’ll need to think about how much it costs where you want to live so you can find work that pays enough money to support you and your family. Once you know how much you need, you’ll be able to try to line up a qualifying job.

4. Educate Yourself on Civilian Benefits

The military makes it easy to sign up for your benefits, such as TRICARE or your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). You may be confused when looking at civilian benefits, especially when it comes to different healthcare plans and other benefits. As you start looking for new jobs, you should start comparing benefits and research benefits you’re unfamiliar with or confused with. Ideally, you’ll want to find a job that replaces the benefits you had in the military, especially since you’ll lose benefits like TRICARE if you don’t retire from the armed forces.

5. Explore Options for Professional Development

Just because you leave the military doesn’t mean you can’t explore your options for professional development. There’s always room to grow and doing well in your career will open new doors for you to help you achieve your goals and support your family.

As a former service member, you will have access to the GI Bill, which you can use to fund your tuition if you want to pursue higher education. You can also take courses or receive certifications to further develop the skills you gained in the military, or you can pursue a new career if you want to do something different.

6. Stay Connected and Reach Out to Others

Transitioning out of the military can feel isolating, especially since you’ll be leaving a lot of friends behind who are still serving. However, just because you’re getting out of the military doesn’t mean you can’t stay in touch with your fellow service members. In fact, staying connected can help you network and find opportunities in the civilian world.

You should also start trying to make new connections. Not only will you want to make new friends and connections in the civilian world, but networking with those who have experience in the civilian world can help you find new opportunities that align with your goals for your future.

7. Prepare Your Loved Ones

Your family will likely experience their own set of challenges as they navigate the changes that come about from your transition. Your spouse may be moving away from their own support network and career, and your children could be leaving behind friends and their school. You can prepare your loved ones by supporting them through the hardships they may experience during the transition.

If you’re not able to live close to your current installation, encourage your loved ones to maintain contact with their friends and network. You can also encourage your spouse to find a post-military support group to connect with others and find new opportunities for employment.

8. Be Ready and Willing to Adapt

You’ll likely have different things to adapt to when you enter the civilian world, such as a new schedule, new lingo, working alongside other civilians, and more. It’s important to be willing to adapt to these differences so you can adjust more seamlessly. While it can be challenging to deal with these changes, try to focus on the positives, such as having the ability to set down roots with your loved ones and more time with family.

Let MLC Help You Prepare for Your Transition

In many cases, your transition out of the military will require you to move, whether you’ve decided to move home, you’re moving off base, or you’ve found a new destination to set up your new home. Where you’ve decided to move, you will need the right luggage to help you get your belongings to your destination.

Military Luggage Company can supply you with the luggage you need to successfully move and transition out of the military. We offer a wide range of bags, packs, and cases, including duffels and backpacks you can use to effectively transport your belongings. Get started by searching through our complete selection, or contact us today with any questions.